Via Beechworth
After being dropped off at Bright, it was a leisurely 30 km roll down to Myrtleford, which was a repeat of a the same ride taken a bit over three years ago. While much of Victoria was a little on parched side, being the middle of summer, the run between Bright and Myrtleford featured vibrant green countryside, under a stunning blue sky. This section was to be the busiest so far as seeing other riders on any of the trails visited.
This line started life as a branch off the North East line at Bowser (then known as Beechworth Junction) in 1875, extending through to Everton. The section from Everton to Beechworth was completed a year later in 1876. This branch was further extended to Yackandandah in 1891.
In 1883, a branch from Everton was built to Myrtleford, with the extension to Bright being completed in 1890. Closures on these branches started in 1952 when the passenger service from Wangaratta ceased, followed by passenger service on the mixed to Beechworth ending in 1953. In 1954 the line between Beechworth and Yackandandah was closed. The Everton to Beechworth branch closed in 1976. The line to Bright lasted a bit longer, being closed beyond Myrtleford in 1983. The final closure of the branch occurred in 1987.
The railtrail was constructed from Bright to Wangaratta and Beechworth between 1993 and 2002, is sealed for its entire length (97 km) and is really a first class asset.
After my lunch stop in Myrtleford, I knew I had a decent climb to Gapstead ahead of me. I don’t have particularly happy memories of this climb, based on my experience of three years ago. But back then, I was not ‘bike fit’ and had a rubbish bike. This time around I had crested the hill before I knew it and was very pleased with my efforts. I knew however, that there was a more challenging climb ahead of me, and that was the ascent out of Everton to Beechworth. This 16 km section rises 350 metres on a fairly constant 1 in 30 grade. There are a couple of teaser sections, where the grade eases, and in fact descends slightly, and these are at the beginning, and towards the top. The last Km to Beechworth is down hillish. In the middle of the teasers is around 10 km of solid climbing. Now I’ve been up steeper hills, and even longer climbs, but these were achieved on a sub 10 kg road bike. I was packing 15 kg of gear in panniers on the back of a 15 kg commuter bike. And I’d already ridden 60 km between Bright and Everton. So after a bit of a rest at the Everton Station site, it was off up the hill.
In hindsight, I probably went too hard at this hill. Determined to maintain an overall average speed of 20 kph for the whole trip I wanted to maintain a high climbing speed on this final section, and therefore tried to maintain 15 kph or better for this bit. About half way up, in the middle of the continuous slog, my legs were telling me that this was not an appropriate strategy and were levelling all sorts of complaints at me. After a flat teaser section about 5 km out, the hill returned to it’s previous steepness, and I was down on the front granny ring, grimly trying to maintain 11 kph. I Should have spent another half an hour or so in this climb, and just spun up and enjoyed the scenery – this was to be the strategy for the remaining trip.
On finally reaching my accommodation at a local pub, I do not believe a beer ever tasted so good, so several more followed in quick succession to reduce the pain I was now suffering to tolerable levels.
The next morning there was still some residual soreness and stiffness from the over exertion, but fortunately, it was all down hill to that day’s destination, Wangaratta. The return down the hill to Everton was quite exhilarating, and from there, an easy ride was enjoyed for the remainder of the trip to ‘the Wang’.
Not too many photos for this ride, because I’ve done it before. There are photos on previous blog posts I did on this ride on my old “Steaming up the Tracks” site. Bright to Myrtleford, The Big Ride part 1 and The big ride part 2 have a few more photos of the trail from 2009 (not much has really changed). The video below should be viewable at 720p if you have the bandwidth ( I might redo the Tallarook vid later) and the ride map is at the bottom of the page.
